Make the McKenzie Connection!
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Oregonians have become increasingly dissatisfied with our systems of representation at the state and local level and are interested in ways to restructure our elections to better reflect their interests, according to surveys by the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center. These sentiments would appear to set the stage for their approval of Measure 117, which would establish systems of ranked choice voting for federal, state and local elections that promise more choices for voters and fewer obstacles fo...
The Portland teacher's strike sent a message to state lawmakers who hold the purse strings for Portland and the state’s other 196 school districts: You can’t keep writing checks for our schools without getting more involved in how those checks are spent. Portland teachers managed to force changes in the district’s budget, boosting their salaries and highlighting the issue of unmanageable class sizes. But they had no way to deal with the state’s K-12 budget, which became the immovable object at the bargaining table and set the non-neg...
State economists sounded the alarm recently about a slight but sudden decline in Oregon’s population, warning of a potential drag on an economy that has benefited from steady in-migration for more than three decades. For business leaders in Portland and budget watchers in Salem, this decline was another warning signal that Oregon should get its economic act together or prepare for tougher times ahead. But, for Oregonians generally, the idea of slower population growth is hardly a cause for concern. For many, in fact, it may represent a m...